Executive Director, Digital Content Strategy-Duke Alumni Engagement & Development

For the global Duke community, the name “Duke” represents more than just a university. It means family. Duke’s Office of Alumni Engagement and Development is here to keep more than 200,000 alumni, donors, students, parents, and friends connected to the programs, people and places that mean the most at every stage of their lives. When you join the Duke Alumni Engagement and Development team, you join a team of high-achievers who are committed to deepening relationships, enabling connections, and helping the community make world-changing impact. 

 

SUMMARY

 

The Executive Director of Content Strategy serves as the lead digital strategist for Duke Alumni Engagement and Development (AED) and supports the university’s highest philanthropic and engagement priorities. The executive director will work with alumni engagement and development leaders and colleagues to curate a digital-first approach to content design and management throughout Duke’s strategic initatives as well as alumni engagement and donor stewardship. Reporting to the Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Communications Operations, this position will serve as a senior member of the department’s management team.

 

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

 

Content Strategy and Planning

• Plan, execute, and evaluate content publishing strategies that align with alumni audience(s) and stakeholders.
• Partner with development and engagement stakeholders to drive user-centered content strategies across AED digital platforms
• Develop, execute, and align multi-platform content strategies based upon current and emerging trends in the digital programming space
• Work with the Assistant VP to set objectives and measure results for marketing content strategies aligned to Duke’s global mission
• Partner with business intelligence and the digital communications to identify and lead strategic opportunities for audience and brand research that informs or evaluates digital content plans. This may include leading digital content audits, organizing online and in-person focus groups, extrapolating learning opportunities from case studies and peer universities, etc.
• Oversee all Forever Duke social media channels including content development, regular content review, and refreshing information, functionality, and theme. Ensuring aligned branding of all sites using the Duke branding guidelines.
• Manage the department’s reputation by monitoring social media for news and trends about or that affect the department, and maintain the department’s voice and tone on our social media platforms.
• Supervise content strategy staff including (1) social media strategist,  (1) multimedia producer and (2) project coordinators.

 

Management Duties

• Representative Duties - Appropriately represent Duke University as “employer” to direct reports and direct reports as “employees” to Duke University
• Programmatic Duties - Ensure alignment of given programmatic, departmental, and/or organization-wide activities with AED strategic goals, priorities, and expectations
• Financial Duties - Exercise fiduciary responsibility for given individual, programmatic, departmental, and/or organization-wide activities in accordance with Duke’s financial policies, procedures, and standards, and AED expectations
• Personnel Duties:  Supervise direct reports in accordance with Duke’s human resource policies, procedures, and standards, and AED expectations
• Personnel Duties:  Hire & Onboard new employees (and offboard separating employees) in accordance with programmatic, departmental, and organization-wide priorities, Duke’s human resource policies, procedures, and standards, and AED expectations

 

Perform other duties as assigned.

 

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

 

Technical:

• Demonstrated excellence in message development, substantive editing, copywriting, and brand development
• Demonstrate an ability to lead content strategy across the entire development process and multiple organizations/clients
• Demonstrated success developing and implementing effective content strategies and/or marketing campaigns across multiple channels, including evaluating campaign performance
• Minimum 2 years’ experience coaching and leading direct reports to meet communications objectives required
• Experience using market/audience research to inform communications plans preferred
• Knowledge of educational fundraising, higher education issues, research universities, and Duke University preferred
• Agency experience preferred

 

Behavioral:

Candidate must:

• Be able to set schedules, prioritize work, and manage deadlines effectively for self and for a team
• Be able